


All for You

by MsOzma



Series: HSWC 2014 Fills [12]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Beforus, F/F, F/M, and eridan is the sorcerer or guardian seafarer, and feferi is her regal beneficiary or the benefice, because i thought it'd be fun to do the six letter thing with her, jade is called 'jayyde harley', trollbent, wooooo
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-18
Updated: 2014-06-18
Packaged: 2018-02-05 05:29:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,339
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1807015
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MsOzma/pseuds/MsOzma
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>“You should be happy, knowing sea dwellers do so much for you.”</p><p>“Do you <em>really</em> believe that?”</p><p>“Believin’ has nothin’ to do with it.  This is just the way things <em>are</em>.”</p><p>She laughed in your face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	All for You

**Author's Note:**

> Long ass fill I did for BR3. Based on this prompt:
> 
> "Eridan♥Jade (side Feferi♦Jade is not required but would be interesting to add)
> 
> An au where the kids are trolls, Jade is a rare limeblood troll, and they all live on the more peaceful planet of Beforus."
> 
> I love Beforus headcanons and things, okay?

It was strange the way you felt about her.  
  
Of course you pitied the poor girl, having such an unfortunate color of blood. Honestly, if you didn’t hold some sympathy for her plight, you wouldn’t really be a proper highblood, would you?  
  
Yet the pity you felt for her...it was different.  
  
Maybe because it made you rethink everything you knew about Beforus and its Empress.  
  
\---  
  
You met her when you were a young, strapping highblood, just  _begging_  Her People’s Beneficiary—called the more informal Benefice by many—to let you raise a few orphaned grubs so they could see just how grateful they should be that sea dwellers devote so much of their powers to them. You just knew it was your calling to be with the orphans—like it was something you were always hatched to do. The Benefice in her infinite wisdom, of course, told you that you were not ready for such a task, and you tried your  _absolute_  hardest not to call her a bitch for it. Not that you would have been punished for it. You just figured a woman who spent so much of her energy to make the lives of her people good did not deserve such a foul word to define her.  
  
But she and you had always been friends, and so she would allow you to watch some of the orphans she would care for from time to time. And that’s how you met her—the lime blood Jade Harley. As swift as a pistol, with an even quicker draw.  
  
She was at that stage in a troll’s life  _just_  before adulthood, and she was edgy and rebellious due to it. The Benefice warned you as such before she left her in your care.  
  
“Be careful!” she had said with a smile, pointing down to the much shorter lime blood. “This one’s  _feisty_!”  
  
The young Jaydde Harley rolled her eyes at this statement, though at the time you didn’t understand the larger significance of it. You just assumed it was a part of her aforementioned “feistiness.”  
  
Once you assured the Benefice that you were more than capable of the task, she went on her way, leaving you and the lime blood alone in your expansive hive. For a moment, the two of you simply stared at each other. You were sizing her up to see what you would be dealing with, of course, and you had a feeling she was doing the same.  
  
Small talk was  _never_  your forte, and that was always fine by you. It was a waste of time to discuss such trivial things, in your mind. So you went straight to what you ended up telling  _every_  orphan who the Benefice allowed you to temporarily care for.  
  
“You’re pretty lucky, you know.”  
  
Her inquisitive stare turned to one of confusion as she raised an eyebrow. “What?”  
  
You continued, though somewhat aggravated at having to repeat yourself. But of course, she was a lowblood, and you had to be  _patient_. “I mean you being taken care of by the Benefice herself. She is caring and giving enough to put  _your_  needs before your own.” Then, as if to signify the whole of Beforus, you swept your arms, motioning to everything around the two of you. “She has lead and shaped an entire society  _just_  for people like  _you_.”  
  
You pointed to her at that last word. She continued to stare up at you with her eyebrow arched, until you spoke again.  
  
“You should be happy, knowing sea dwellers do so much for you.”  
  
Upon this, you had hoped for some revelation to flash in her eyes—like you saw happen with some of the Benefice’s other orphans. Instead, she continued to look at you with that same arched eyebrow. When she finally spoke, her brow lowered, and she said something you didn’t expect.  
  
She asked you, not even with a hint of snark. “Do you  _really_  believe that?”  
  
It threw you off guard. No other troll had ever asked you such a strange thing. Did it  _matter_  what you believed? You could believe in a parallel universe where Beforus was some violent, hateful society, and it wouldn’t make it  _true_. Some things were fact and some things weren’t. And Beforus was a society dedicated to the plight of lowbloods for a  _fact_.  
  
And you told her as such. “Believin’ has nothin’ to do with it. This is just the way things  _are_.”  
  
To this, she actually  _laughed_. You were completely dumbfounded at her behavior. Shaking her head, she simply walked away from you toward a random bookshelf in the block. As her laughter ceased, she pulled out a book (which you had to fight every nerve to not yell at her to  _not ouch your shit_ ), and flipped through random pages. Her look of amusement for…whatever thing you said that was strange to her, fell and turned into a look of focus at the book. It took a few moments before she looked up at you.  
  
“What is this?”  
  
It was a simple question, but the way she said it seemed like she  _expected_  you to answer politely, which rubbed you the wrong way. But you reminded yourself of the Benefice’s teachings, and responded as nicely as you could.  
  
“It’s a spell book.” Then, to make yourself seem nicer, you decided to sweeten the deal. “I have thousands o’ them here, you can have that one if you want.”  
  
She simply hummed at this, and you silently breathed a sigh in relief when she put the book back on the shelf because you were honestly  _not_  okay with her taking  _anything_  from your hive,  _especially_  not your spell books. After the book was placed neatly back on its shelf, she turned to you, again changing the subject.  
  
“What’s your name?”  
  
Oh, shit. You had forgotten to introduce yourself. No wonder things got so awkward, you had thought. Standing more upright, you extended a hand in greeting.  
  
“People call me the Sorcerer. Though I would also like to be called Guardian Seafarer—“  
  
“I didn’t ask what you were  _called_.” She interrupted. “I asked what your  _name_  was.”  
  
Your name. No one had called you by or even asked for your name in sweeps. You don’t think you had even referred to  _yourself_  as your name in sweeps.  
  
It actually took a bit of thought before you finally stumbled upon it in your thinkpan.  
  
“Eridan,” you responded. “Eridan Ampora.”  
  
To this, she smiled. Then, she grasped your hand firmly, shaking it.  
  
“I’m Jayyde Harley!” she said, beaming at you.  
  
It would be easy to say stirrings of what you would later feel for her began then, but they didn’t. Though you  _did_  know then that you would be close to Jayyde.  
  
Because for the first time in a long while, you legitimately smiled back—without having to force it.  
  
\---  
  
You and Jayyde became close that day, brushing off the strangeness that was your beginning impressions of each other. You became so close that Jayyde would  _beg_  the Benefice to see you, and you were always happy to see her. Even when she became an adult a couple sweeps later, you and she remained just as close.  
  
You learned over sweeps of knowing her that she loved gardening. She grew dozens of flowers and crops in the yards of the Benefice’s castle, sharing a plot with many other orphans. Usually, the plots looked very similar to each other; however, Jayyde’s stuck out like a sore thumb because it had such a diverse array of plants next to each other, each one more beautiful and fuller than the last. As well as gardening, she also told you of her love for lusii and the wildlife on Beforus. She loved the woofbeasts most of all, as they reminded her of her own woofbeast lusus who had passed away when she was young.  
  
“I actually used to pretend I was a woofbeast, embarrassingly enough,” she admitted, blushing a beautiful shade of lime. “I just thought it would make me closer to them somehow, even though he was dead.”  
  
You smiled—much like that genuine smile you first showed her—and to ease her nerves, put your fingers pointed upward against your head as mock ears, and said, “ _Woof!_ ”  
  
She had laughed at your foolishness, and you too pretended to be woofbeasts for the rest of the day until moonset.  
  
You learned a lot of things about Jayyde Harley those days, through both big and small talk—the latter you didn’t mind sharing with her. Because Jayyde had a way about her, where she could make even the smallest things like the weather seem as grand and large as the universe itself, and every word and syllable was another solar system.  
  
You fell for her the way her garden grew: slowly and little by little each day, until one day after you had put so much work into her and she into you, you one day looked at her with shock and amazement on the wondrous thing the two of you—either purposefully or not—had created.  
  
You both shared your first kiss of matespritship a season after the day you both pretended to be woofbeasts.  
  
\---  
  
Of course, you weren’t the only one who desired to share a quadrant with her.  
  
As time passed between your and hers declaration of matespritship, you found her spending sometimes days away from you, without any explanation (which you had to swallow down every urge in your body to demand one from her). It wasn’t until you received an unlikely visit from the Benefice one day that you finally realized what was happening.  
  
“Oh, Seafarer!” she had said, for not even your best friend called you Eridan anymore—only Jayyde would. Though the Benefice was kind enough to call you by the name you preferred, unpopular though it was. “I  _have_  to tell you this, or else I’ll just scream it to everyone on Beforus!”  
  
You cocked an eyebrow, your interest piqued. “Really?”  
  
“Yes, really!” she continued, bubbly and cheerful as ever. “I have great news to share with you!”  
  
She then reached out and clasped your hands with hers—the way she had when you were kids, when she was still willing to tell you all of your secrets and dreams. Then, with a voice nearly  _squealing_  from delight, she finally told you.  
  
“I have a  _new moirail_!”  
  
\---  
  
When you told Jayyde you found out, she immediately looked ashamed and guilty.  
  
“I just…I wasn’t sure how you would—“  
  
You put your finger on her mouth to silence her. You gave her the smile that she was officially the only recipient of. As a lime-colored tear fell down her cheek, you took your finger off and wiped the tear off with your thumb.  
  
“We were moirails a long time ago,” you explained to her. “It’s in the past now. All that matters now is that  _you’re_  her moirail, and  _I_ …”  
  
You bent down to kiss her forehead, and she embraced you tightly upon it. You chuckled at her impulsiveness, and hugged her back.  
  
“…And I’m  _so happy_  for you two.”  
  
After a few seconds of holding each other, you both finally pulled away, and you smiled even more brightly at her.  
  
“So tell me,” you began, “how’d it happen?”  
  
And she told you how the Benefice—you were surprised she still referred to her as such, even though you were sure she knew by now that her name was Feferi—had apparently  _always_  held pale sentiments for her. She also told you how the Benefice at times feels so overwhelmed by her duties that she sometimes vents her frustrations.  
  
It seemed reasonable to you, and it somewhat mirrored what the Benefice had told you when she had broken your moirallegiance—that she felt she was too stressed to be your moirail anymore. It’d make sense that she wouldn’t be able to deal with pacifying someone, and instead would need to be pacified, despite her giving heart. She was your Empress, yes…but she was also just one troll.  
  
When you were about to tell Jayyde these thoughts, you found that she had suddenly become crestfallen. When her eyes finally came back to yours, you knew you didn’t need to ask.  
  
Much like the Benefice, you were sure, you didn’t need to try to open her shell of optimism. She was completely open with you, and it was a privilege you were glad to have.  
  
“I just thought that she might…look at me differently as a moirail.”  
  
She already knew you would be confused by this, and didn’t hesitate at all in finishing.  
  
“I just thought…she wouldn’t see me as someone she needed to take care of, if I could take care of her.”  
  
\---  
  
You thought long and hard that night about what she said that sunny night, and for the first time ever you felt you finally understood Jayyde—though you had thought you had once understood her before.  
  
When she laughed at your statement about Beforus when you had met sweeps ago. All that time, you assumed it was just her rebelliousness.  
  
You thought about the Benefice—she who you once called a moirail. How she always was. How she referred to Jayyde as “this one,” like one would refer to their pet at times.  
  
You thought about how highbloods could look at trolls lower than them. How often times even you saw them as somehow less than you.  
  
Less than you…something you needed to take care of.  
  
As Jayyde traced constellations on your back—some you recognized, some she said she’s only seen in her dreams—you finally understood why she never believed Beforus was for people like her. You finally understood it was always for you.  
  
And you realized then that you pitied her not because she was a lime blood who needed to be cared for…but because she was a lime blood that never needed to be.


End file.
